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GARDAÍ HAVE SEIZED almost €200,000 worth of drugs in Dublin as part of a major investigation into illegal items being sold on the ‘dark net’, an encrypted layer of the internet.
Gardaí said the Criminal Assets Bureau also seized ‘currency assets’, and said an analysis is continuing with regard to the storage of Bitcoin currency.
Officers had been carrying out surveillance of a property on South Circular Road in Dublin city for some time after getting information from an international investigation into drugs being sold on the dark net, which identified an Irish vendor.
Gardaí from CAB and the National Drug Unit raided the premises on Wednesday afternoon and seized ecstasy tablets, LSD, and other drugs.
Two men in their 30s were arrested at the scene and are being held at Kevin Street and Kilmainham garda stations.
The dark net, which cannot be reached through a normal browser and requires anonymising software, allows buyers and sellers to buy things – including drugs and weapons – anonymously, often using Bitcoin.
Gardaí said a follow up search in Harold’s Cross in Dublin 6 resulted in the seizure of documentation about off-shore bank accounts in Switzerland, Belize, Poland, and a number of other countries. A small amount of drugs was also seized in the operation.
In a statement, the Garda Press Office said that a “critical part” of the sting operation on the South Circular Road was “preservation of data on encrypted computers which related to the worldwide distribution of controlled drugs from this premises in Dublin 8″.
“With the invaluable assistance of the CAB and Computer Crime Investigation Unit, a number of computers were safely retrieved with accessible information immediately at the time of entry on this search”.
Gardaí described the bust as a “significant vendor” and said the arrests will be “of significant interest to many global law enforcement agencies who specialise in dark net investigations”.
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Darknet? South circular road? Enough said.
Black net north circler road boonie central
At least some of the garda are doing their jobs correctly. To these garda job well done congratulations.
Seizing “a small amount of Drugs” mainly beneficial substances in the form of lsd when used correctly isn’t exactly a win.. The amount of money it must have cost to run these teams to catch a few young fellas buying some black market drugs must be crazy, if this countries usual history of blowing money on total crap is anything to go by
Lsd? Beneficial? ??
Yes. In small doses it is highly successful in treating alcoholism. Have a look for the extensive research online on the topic.
Lsd as treatment for alcoholism, LOL
I’m not sure are you trolling or not, but yes, LSD as a very good treatment for alcoholism. Very little relapse even after a single small dose.
I’m not trolling at all. mushrooms. Lsd. Ayahuasca. Dmt. Ibogaine. Mdma. Marijuana. All have huge benefits… war on drugs is a farce. Prohibition doesn’t work…. Yet alcohol and cigarettes destroy lives by the the thousands… People who abuse will abuse no matter what it is.. childish approach by just banning shit from grown adults which creates a black market economy doesn’t work only for the criminals… I could go on…..
My comment was directed at Alan R but I appreciate your comment.
Fair play to the gardai. Wonder how they will flog off the bitcoin?
Send the tabs and lsd to fg and lab at Leinster house so they can chill out Guinness not strong enough
Why make a totally irrelevant comment on a story just for a few green thumbs ?
Unlike traditional currencies. If someone has a backup, you cannot really seize Bitcoin. They can cash in any of their backups and then the copy you seize is useless. If they haven’t cashed it in already it is most likely useless.
Would law enforcement be allowed to cash in a currency such as Bitcoin on the markets. Wouldn’t they be guilty of laundering illegal money ?
It depends on wether they encrypted their wallets. Bitcoin is held on desktop walkers and on online cloud wallets all of which can be encrypted. I reckon these guys let slip with conversion via open non encrypted channels and their cover was blown. Id say Yank intelligence gave info to guards and they act on possible narcotic possession.
Enda, if they authorities transfer Bitcoin from the seized wallets to another wallet that they control. There is no way the criminal can reverse that transaction, regardless of whether they have backed up their wallet. They can’t override the sequence in transactions on the blockchain. In the US the government already auctioned off all of the bitcoin seized from the original Silk Road bust last year.
Pats all round for the blue old boys club who were given the info from someone else. Sure how could they do the investigation when there’s water meters to be posted. And on another note shame on the journal to bring us any coverage of the fact 3 states in the usa decided to legalise marihuana yesterday after realising the war on drugs is a farce. So much for decent reporting. In fact there seems to be an irish media blackout on this story. Terrible that we have such selective reporting.
Fair play to the garda?? It was an international investigation..
A good day for the cops. Congratulations on a job well done. However it will probably be online again by the end of the month. And there are other sites still active doing the same thing. The war on drugs has had some success but ultimately has been ineffective. The only real way to end the war is for the government to legalise and control. It’s the only way to do real damage to cartels and organised gangs.
They’ll be raiding the boogie man from under the bed next…
Benders
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